The U.S. Should Play a Crucial, But Limited, Role

Rachel Kleinfeld is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the Truman National Security Project, an institute that trains a new generation of national security leaders.

Updated March 23, 2011, 12:20 PM

Every military strategist knows that a plan dissolves upon contact with the enemy. We cannot know exactly what is going to come next in Libya, but President Obama made the right call to act decisively. Now, we need to hand the mission over to our allies.

Now, we should hand leadership of the military operation over to allies, ideally to France and Britain.

No one wants to be involved in another war in the Arab world. But evil people don’t always give you the luxury of time. Once the threat to 100,000 innocent civilians became immediate, the president needed to act. We could not have sat on our hands, with aircraft carriers offshore, as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi massacred civilians. Not acting would have cost America dearly in terms of credibility: a generation of Arabs would have lost faith in the United States, just as the Arab Spring takes hold in country after country. We cannot afford to lose the Middle East.

But it was crucial that we did not act alone. We want an international team to hand this mission off to. We have a war to wind down in Afghanistan, and our economy demands attention. No-fly zones can last for years -- we maintained one in Iraq for over a decade -- and we do not want to be responsible for a protracted, costly mission. Whoever continues this effort needs to be prepared for a very long stay in the Middle East -- and America should not let itself get bogged down. We have done the crucial job that only we could do: taking out Libya’s air defense systems and vital aircraft. Now, we should hand leadership of the military operation over to allies, ideally to France and Britain, whose critical interests are at stake, while regional Arab powers provide financing and support.

America can and should play a crucial, but limited assisting role. We can provide arms, ammunition and intelligence support to the local rebels -- helping us both gain their trust and understand who will be leading a future Libya. We may even provide a very small Special Forces detachment to help these rebels organize.

We should also supply diplomatic support and assistance to help any new fledgling government succeed. That, however, requires Congress to finance the State Department, whose budget it has ludicrously slashed. It is the State Department’s unique abilities, and not the Pentagon’s, that should be taking the lead in the rapidly changing Middle East.